1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to liquid ejecting apparatus comprising a determiner configured to determine that a liquid container has become a low-amount state, in which an amount of liquid stored in the liquid container is low.
2. Description of Related Art
A known liquid ejecting apparatus, e.g., an inkjet printer, has a liquid ejecting head, e.g., an inkjet head, a liquid container, e.g., an ink cartridge configured to supply liquid to the liquid ejecting head, and a determiner configured to determine the amount of liquid stored in the liquid container.
The determiner of the known liquid ejecting apparatus may determine the amount of liquid with a sensor directly detecting the amount of liquid or with an estimator estimating the amount of liquid based on an amount of liquid consumed by the liquid ejecting head. For example, a known inkjet printer such as described in JP-A-2005-262564 has an ink cartridge configured to be removably mounted to a holder, and an optical sensor configured to detect the amount of ink stored in the ink cartridge. The ink cartridge has a float configured to move according to the amount of ink stored in the ink cartridge, and a light blocking plate connected to the float via an arm. The sensor is configured to detect whether or not the amount of ink is greater than or equal to a predetermined amount based on whether or not light emitted by the sensor is blocked by the light blocking plate. In addition, a controller of this known inkjet printer is configured to estimate the amount of ink stored in the ink cartridge based on an amount of ink consumed by the inkjet head.
The amount of ink estimated by the controller generally may be less accurate compared to the amount of ink detected by the sensor. Therefore, in the above-described known inkjet printer, the sensor detects whether or not the amount of ink is greater than or equal to a predetermined amount. Subsequently, after it is detected that the amount of ink reaches the predetermined amount, the controller estimates the amount of ink until the ink cartridge becomes empty.
Nevertheless, when the sensor is broken, or, when the float and/or the light blocking plate fails to move because they are assembled wrongly or they are manufactured defectively, the sensor may fail to detect the amount of ink stored in the ink cartridge. In such a case, the inkjet head may continue to eject ink even after the amount of ink stored in the ink cartridge becomes considerably low, which may end up with ink-ejecting failure because air may enter the inkjet head.